Outdoor cinema event first aid is often underestimated, this guide explains what medical cover you actually need, and why.
There’s a reason outdoor cinema nights feel deceptively low risk. You picture blankets, popcorn, a family film, and a calm audience. In reality, you’ve got a temporary venue, darkness, uneven ground, trip hazards, weather exposure, and numbers of people moving at the same time – often in a field or park with limited lighting and access routes.
If you’re organising an outdoor cinema (or a drive-in / pop-up screening), the practical question is usually:
“What medical cover do I actually need, and how do I justify it?“
This guide walks you through a sensible, best practice aligned approach to event first aid and event medical cover for outdoor cinema events, using recognised event standards and UK guidance.
Outdoor cinema event first aid: why medical cover matters
Even “quiet” events generate casualties. Outdoor cinemas tend to produce:
- Slips, trips and falls (uneven ground + darkness + cables + blankets/chairs)
- Minor injuries (cuts, sprains, head bumps)
- Medical presentations (asthma, chest pain, seizures, hypoglycaemia, fainting)
- Alcohol-related issues (if you’re licensed, even social drinking can change the risk profile)
- Crowd pinch points (entry queues, toilets, food vendors, exits at the end)
And crucially: you often have reduced visibility and slower access, so even small issues can escalate if they’re not picked up early.
From an organiser’s perspective, it’s also part of overall event safety management. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is clear that event organisers are responsible for maintaining safety so far as reasonably practicable, including having arrangements in place to control risks and ensuring competent people are used.
Key risk factors specific to outdoor cinema events
Outdoor cinemas have their own signature risk pattern. A decent medical needs assessment focuses on these specifics:
1) Darkness and uneven terrain
Once the film starts, visibility drops. People will keep moving for toilets, children wander, and trip hazards become harder to spot. That means you can expect to see ankle and knee injuries, head strikes and general cuts, grazes and bruises.
2) Temporary infrastructure
Outdoor cinemas usually run on a temporary site, these often involve:
- Cable runs to projector/screen/sound
- Temporary fencing and crowd routing
- Portable toilets
- Generators and fuel
These don’t automatically make your even a high tier, but they do increase the likelihood of minor injury. Good outdoor cinema event first aid also includes safe routing around cable runs and generator cordons.
3) Weather exposure
Outdoor cinemas, as the name suggests, happen outdoors. Whilst we might be used to UK weather, it’s still something you must consider as part of your risk assessment. Cold crowds are common; your outdoor cinema event first aid should anticipate exposure presentations as well as injuries.
- Cold nights → shivering, exacerbation of respiratory illness, increased falls risk
- Hot evenings → dehydration, fainting (often in queues)
- Rain → slips, hypothermia risk, falls from slippery and wet ground
4) Crowd flow at predictable times
Though outdoor cinema events certainly aren’t glastonbury, it’s still reasonable to expect a surge in your attendance:
- 30-60 mins before the show starts (arrivals, scanning tickets)
- If you have an intermission or half time, expect runs for snacks and the toilet
- Immediately after the show (everyone runs for the exit, car park pandomonium)
HSE highlights the need to plan for incidents and emergencies and manage crowd safety risks.
5) Alcohol, if licensed
The Purple Guide tiers explicitly include alcohol and intoxication likelihood as factors that shift events up in complexity and anticipated first aid presentations. All it takes is one person to have a little too much to cause a headache for your event team.
Outdoor cinema event first aid under the Purple Guide tiers
For most outdoor cinema events, you’re typically sitting in Tier 1 or Tier 2 – unless you add complexity (large attendance, high alcohol/drug burden, more hazardous activities, etc.).
The Purple Guide describes:
- Tier 1: small/simple events; often can be covered without a healthcare professional or ambulance, but organisers should still consider a suitable first aid kit, someone able to use it, awareness of nearest defibrillator, and how to access emergency help.
- Tier 2: larger events (often within licensing scope) where a dedicated first aid resource is needed, preferably led by a healthcare professional, and (where indicated by the medical needs assessment) a nominated first aid lead, supporting responders/clinicians, and possibly an ambulance if transfers are expected.
So, what do you take away from this if you’re running an outdoor cinema:
- Tier is not just about headcount – it’s also about duration, environment, alcohol/drugs, and likelihood of hospital referrals.
- The medical needs assessment drives the model. Your plan should be defensible based on foreseeable problems and how quickly you can respond on the site.
Ultimately, our recommendation is to make use of dedicated first responders at your event. They will almost certainly come with the necessary skills and equipment to not only handle the minor injuries, but also be ready to handle (hopefully unlikely) serious emergencies.
Used properly, the tiers help you justify outdoor cinema event first aid based on risk, access and escalation.
Medical needs assessment
Ambulance services increasingly frame event medical cover around a medical needs assessment, rather than a simple “X first aiders per Y people” rule. For example, North East Ambulance Service states that cover level should be decided after a medical needs assessment considering what might happen, what skills are needed, and what facilities are required, with reference to industry guidance like the Purple Guide.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service similarly advises completing a comprehensive medical risk assessment and producing a medical plan that sets out how risks will be mitigated and what cover will be provided.
For outdoor cinema, the assessment questions that you must be considering are:
- How many attendees on site at the peak?
- Is the venue flat, lit, and accessible for a stretcher/wheelchair?
- How far is the nearest ambulance access point and how controlled is it?
- Is alcohol sold? BYOB?
- What is the demographic of your audience? Family groups? Young adults? Teenagers?
- What’s your evacuation/stop show plan if weather deteriorates?
- What is your communication setup (e.g., radios or phones)?
- Where is your nearest Emergency Department?
What are you actually planning for?
Scenario 1: “just” a twisted ankle
A teenager goes over on uneven ground in the dark near the back. Friends lift them onto a camping chair. If you’ve only got a single static first aider at the front, this becomes a long job – and crucially leaves your only first aider busy.
A better plan: a small team (even if it’s just 2) with radios, able to assess, provide initial care, and coordinate safe movement to a treatment point.
Scenario 2: chest pain during the film
This is a classic problem. Something often brushed off as “it won’t happen here”. It can. Your plan needs:
- a clear emergency pathway (who calls 999, who meets the ambulance),
- access route control (gates unlocked, marshals briefed),
- and a medical response capability that can assess and begin immediate care while waiting.
Scenario 3: home time collapse
Phew, that went without a hitch.. right? As your crowd funnel through the exit, someone collapses, and now you have a developing crowd management issue around a casualty. Your medical team must be integrated with the stewarding team and have the capability to extricate someone from a crowd safely if needed.
This is exactly why HSE focuses on planning crowd controls and incident response.
Common mistakes you can make with outdoor cinema medical cover
- Assuming that because your event is family friendly you only need a first aid kit
Tier 1 events still need proper planning. Even the Tier 1 summary stresses having someone able to use a suitable kit and knowing where to find an AED. - Only providing a static first aid post
Outdoor cinema injuries happen where people sit – often far from the entrance. If you can’t reach the casualty quickly, you’re not providing effective cover. The quickest way to weaken outdoor cinema event first aid is relying on a static post with no response capability. - No plan for lighting, comms, and access
A plan that ignores how you actually move around the site in the dark doesn’t do anyone any favours. A first aid post with no lights? Not very useful. - Forgetting build and breakdown risk
HSE is explicit that set up and takedown can involve higher risk activities and still need proper safety management. Especially if you’ve got a big setup, this can easily be higher risk than showtime. - Not integrating medical with other services
If your medics can’t request lighting, stop footfall, or get a gate opened, you’ll lose time when it matters.
How a professional medical provider adds value
A decent event medical provider doesn’t just “send first aiders for events”. They should:
- Complete (or support) a proper medical needs assessment linked to your event risk assessment, reflecting ambulance service expectations.
- Provide a clear medical plan: location of assets, treatment area setup, response routes, comms, escalation process.
- Have real governance: incident documentation, clinical oversight, and clear boundaries on scope.
- Coordinate with event safety: stewarding/security interface and crowd pinch points, in line with HSE crowd management principles.
- Able to do their job: It might sound silly, but many “providers” might not have the right equipment or experience to do what they claim. Many don’t get equipment serviced, a defibrillator that doesn’t work isn’t much use.
The ambulance service also sets out practical checks organisers should make when selecting a medical provider (insurance, appropriate use of registered professionals, and CQC considerations where treatment and transport is provided).
You can always reach out to us, even if you’ve selected another provider, we are able to help you make sure you’ve made the right choice and won’t get caught out by cowboys.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an ambulance on site?
Not automatically. The Purple Guide Tier 2 summary says an ambulance may be included if hospital transfers are expected, based on the medical needs assessment.
For outdoor cinema, the decision often hinges on site access delay, expected casualty profile, and whether transfers are foreseeable.
Can I just rely on 999?
Your plan will still need immediate response capability on site. Ambulance services emphasise the organiser’s responsibility to plan and appoint suitable cover based on a medical needs assessment.
Is an defibrillator required?
We strongly recommend having a dedicated defibrillator on site. However, your plan should always at least cover defibrillation access. The Tier 1 summary explicitly prompts organisers to know the nearest defibrillator and how to access/use it (including referencing defibfinder.uk). If you don’t have one at your event, make sure everyone knows where to find the nearest AED.
How many first aiders do I need for an outdoor cinema?
There isn’t a single universal ratio that works for every site. The approach should be based on your events needs: assess your hazards, layout, access constraints and likely presentations, then resource accordingly.
If you want a general explainer on the logic behind numbers and planning, take a look at our blog post that talks about how many first aiders you need at your event.
What makes an outdoor cinema move from Tier 1 to Tier 2?
Typical triggers include longer duration, higher attendance, licensed alcohol, increased likelihood of injury/illness, and more complex site management. Those are exactly the tier indicators described in the Purple Guide medical tier summary.
Closing: a simple way to make your plan defensible
If you want a solid, confident answer to “what medical cover do I need?” build it around four practical questions:
- What are the most likely first aid incidents at this event? (falls in the dark, cold exposure, minor injuries)
- What are the most serious plausible casualties? (collapse, seizure, chest pain)
- How quickly can we reach, assess, treat, and escalate – given this site layout and time of day?
- Do we have the confidence, skill and equipment to handle the above?
If you want outdoor cinema event first aid that’s proportionate and defensible, document the assessment and link it to your site plan.
